Home on Josh Dzielak - Developer advocate and indie hackerhttps://dzello.com/
Recent content in Home on Josh Dzielak - Developer advocate and indie hackerHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usjosh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)Tue, 06 Aug 2019 17:48:03 +0200About Mehttps://dzello.com/about/
Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/about/Talkshttps://dzello.com/work/talks/
Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/work/talks/Articleshttps://dzello.com/work/articles/
Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/work/articles/Mentionshttps://dzello.com/work/mentions/
Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/work/mentions/APIhttps://dzello.com/api/
Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/api/The Work page on this site and its subpages are built from data that I've assembled about talks I've given, articles I've written, code I've committed and more. The data lives in Hugo data templates and is formatted in TOML.Consultinghttps://dzello.com/consulting/
Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/consulting/Projectshttps://dzello.com/work/projects/
Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/work/projects/Activitieshttps://dzello.com/work/activities/
Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/work/activities/Props for props: how I made a royally unusual talk for JAMstack Conf Londonhttps://dzello.com/blog/2019/07/23/mdx-talk-jamstack-conf-london/
Tue, 23 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2019/07/23/mdx-talk-jamstack-conf-london/There were 4 lightning talks at the reception of this year's JAMstack Conf London. This is the story of how I found myself giving one of them wearing gold sunglasses with an attached crown, and directing the slides with a sceptre.MDX, authors and richer JAMstack contenthttps://dzello.com/blog/2019/05/31/mdx-authors-jamstack/
Fri, 31 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2019/05/31/mdx-authors-jamstack/Thanks to the growth of the JAMstack, developers are building performant and secure websites as quickly as ever. Content creators are benefitting from this renaissance too, but at the same time many authors are reaching the limitations of markdown as an authoring tool.World Celebrates International Developer Relations Dayhttps://dzello.com/blog/2019/04/01/developer-relations-day-2019/
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2019/04/01/developer-relations-day-2019/San Francisco, CA, April. 1, 2019 — Today the world recognizes developer advocates, evangelists and everybody else on the &quot;DevRel&quot; team no matter what crazy title they have.
Read the full article on the DeveloperMode blog.How to use the new github.dev personal website generatorhttps://dzello.com/blog/2019/02/05/how-to-use-github-dev-personal-website-generator/
Tue, 05 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2019/02/05/how-to-use-github-dev-personal-website-generator/github.dev is a new community project by GitHub that lives on the .dev TLD. With it, you can fork, customize and deploy a personal site that shows your GitHub bio and contributions, powered by the GitHub API, GitHub Pages, and Jekyll.How DeveloperMode got its namehttps://dzello.com/blog/2018/11/09/how-developermode-got-its-name/
Fri, 09 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2018/11/09/how-developermode-got-its-name/I spent the beginning of May at a 10-day vipassana course in northern California. There are small breaks scattered throughout each day, and normally I would use them to walk around the grounds and stretch my legs.Make your 2018 Burning Man events schedule with Airtablehttps://dzello.com/blog/2018/08/21/burning-man-events-explore-airtable/
Tue, 21 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2018/08/21/burning-man-events-explore-airtable/If like me you want to go to more events in the WhatWhereWhen but are completely incapable of planning things once you're on playa... this post is for you. Using data from the Burning Man organization and Justin Klein, I've thrown together a simple way for you to browse the over 4,000 events that are happening this year right now, fully days before the paper copy of the WWW hits your hands.Faster content rebuilding for Netlify's victor-hugo boilerplatehttps://dzello.com/blog/2018/04/21/faster-content-rebuilding-for-netlifys-victor-hugo-boilerplate/
Sat, 21 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2018/04/21/faster-content-rebuilding-for-netlifys-victor-hugo-boilerplate/Whether you're just learning Hugo or bringing your Hugo experience to a new project, there's a good chance you'll be reaching for Netlify's victor-hugo boilerplate. It's the first starter kit listed in the Hugo documentation and has earned over 750 shiny Github stars ⭐️.Helping startups get developer relations right from day onehttps://dzello.com/blog/2018/04/04/helping-startups-get-developer-relations-right-from-day-one/
Wed, 04 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2018/04/04/helping-startups-get-developer-relations-right-from-day-one/Starting this month, I'm offering consulting and advisorship to startups who are creating tools for developers. I love helping founders and teams think about how to make their product something that developers will fall in love with and want to evangelize for.How to scale community support for APIshttps://dzello.com/blog/2017/06/12/how-to-scale-community-support-for-apis/
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2017/06/12/how-to-scale-community-support-for-apis/I gave a talk at the excellent DevXCon 2017 in San Francisco about how Algolia leverages our developer community to scale up support, while at the same time creating reusable content and community champions.Scale community support by webhooking the thingshttps://dzello.com/blog/2017/06/09/scale-community-support-by-webhooking-the-things/
Fri, 09 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2017/06/09/scale-community-support-by-webhooking-the-things/I gave a talk at Open Source Show and Tell 2017 about how Algolia automates the flow of information between Discourse, Slack and our primary support tool HelpScout. Big thanks to everyone who came and to Justin Johnson for organizing the event.Celebrating one year at Algoliahttps://dzello.com/blog/2017/05/29/celebrating-one-year-at-algolia/
Mon, 29 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2017/05/29/celebrating-one-year-at-algolia/Last month was my 1-year anniversary at Algolia. Everyone gets a cake to share on both their birthday and work anniversaries. It's a very sweet tradition.
I spent 6 months of the year working out of our office in central Paris.Demystifying enter key submission for React formshttps://dzello.com/blog/2017/02/19/demystifying-enter-key-submission-for-react-forms/
Sun, 19 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2017/02/19/demystifying-enter-key-submission-for-react-forms/There are some common problems that developers run into when trying to get enter key submission to work for forms with multiple buttons. This is true for both React and plain HTML.I'm joining Algolia to help developers build searchhttps://dzello.com/blog/2016/05/19/im-joining-algolia-to-help-developers-build-search/
Thu, 19 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2016/05/19/im-joining-algolia-to-help-developers-build-search/tl;dr: I've joined Algolia as a developer advocate!
Algolia helps developers build amazing search experiences inside of products and apps. Companies like Medium and ProductHunt use Algolia to deliver a super fast search-as-you-type experience.How to change the og:image tag on the wordpress.com free planhttps://dzello.com/blog/2016/05/01/how-to-change-the-ogimage-tag-on-the-wordpress.com-free-plan/
Sun, 01 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2016/05/01/how-to-change-the-ogimage-tag-on-the-wordpress.com-free-plan/The wordpress.com free plan doesn't give you control over which image becomes the og:image Open Graph meta tag on the pages and posts you've created. The tag is important because it's used to show a preview image for your page when it's shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.Search presidential speeches with Oval Quoteshttps://dzello.com/blog/2016/04/09/search-presidential-speeches-with-oval-quotes/
Sat, 09 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2016/04/09/search-presidential-speeches-with-oval-quotes/Oval Quotes is a mashup I made using data from The Miller Center and search from Algolia. It's highly compact and lots of fun to play with.
The app lets you search over 500 historical speeches by US presidents.Not a company, a full-time side projecthttps://dzello.com/blog/2016/04/02/not-a-company-a-full-time-side-project/
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2016/04/02/not-a-company-a-full-time-side-project/I really connected with this post on AVC yesterday about side projects. The gist of the post is that we’re seeing less companies these days that started as spare-time side projects.A Crazy introductionhttps://dzello.com/blog/2016/03/10/a-crazy-introduction/
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2016/03/10/a-crazy-introduction/I started building an app a few months ago. It’s called Crazy. Crazy helps you get knowledge out of your head and into a place where you can actually start to work with it.Routine of latehttps://dzello.com/blog/2016/02/09/routine-of-late/
Tue, 09 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2016/02/09/routine-of-late/For the last few months I’ve had my head buried deep in the sands of a new programming project. That always means less writing and journaling and social media posting, and being a hermit IRL too.Evolving work with Reinventing Organizationshttps://dzello.com/blog/2015/11/27/evolving-work-with-reinventing-organizations/
Fri, 27 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/11/27/evolving-work-with-reinventing-organizations/Recently I was asked to give a talk about startups to the prépa classes of St. Jean de Passy in Paris, France. These are top French students on the business school track.A Day In The Life Of The Mindfulness Projecthttps://dzello.com/blog/2015/08/27/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-mindfulness-project/
Thu, 27 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/08/27/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-mindfulness-project/I volunteered this summer at the Mindfulness Project, living and working in a small forest village in northern Thailand. Every day was a new adventure and every expectation I had going in was exceeded.Heaven and Hellhttps://dzello.com/blog/2015/08/02/heaven-and-hell/
Sun, 02 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/08/02/heaven-and-hell/I ran on Friday for the first time in months. Estelle from France asked if anyone wanted to join her for a jog and I, feeling so healthy and optimistic from all that meditation, said yes.My True Nameshttps://dzello.com/blog/2015/07/31/my-true-names/
Fri, 31 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/07/31/my-true-names/Our teacher at the Mindfulness Project read us this beautiful poem during one of our nightly teachings. It was written by Thích Nhất Hạnh, the well-known Vietnamese Buddhist monk, poet, and peace activist.Lonely Beachhttps://dzello.com/blog/2015/07/24/lonely-beach/
Fri, 24 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/07/24/lonely-beach/It took a bus, an overnight, multiple taxis and a ferry to get from Bangkok to Koh Chang. It wasn’t the fastest route, but it was cheap and less stressful than brushing against cliffs in a minibus.Parallel Journeyshttps://dzello.com/blog/2015/07/13/parallel-journeys/
Mon, 13 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/07/13/parallel-journeys/I rolled out of bed at 2, brushed my teeth, and took the hotel elevator down to the pool deck. Double americano, three days in a row now. Not exactly roughing it yet.Beijinghttps://dzello.com/blog/2015/07/02/beijing/
Thu, 02 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/07/02/beijing/It’s here I have a two hour layover. Two and a half now it seems.
I’m tired. It’s 4am where I came from and 7pm where I am. 6pm where I’m going.Boarding Callhttps://dzello.com/blog/2015/07/01/boarding-call/
Wed, 01 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/07/01/boarding-call/I’m sitting at SFO International Gate G99, charging my body with pizza and my devices with the cables that I did not forget (yes!).
The new, GOLD, Macbook is at 96%, not surprising, because this is the finest laptop I have ever laid fingers on, in like every way, battery life especially.Countdownhttps://dzello.com/blog/2015/06/30/countdown/
Tue, 30 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/06/30/countdown/I hope I’ve prepared enough for this trip. My flight leaves in two days.
Logistics have not been my specialty lately. I’ve been in a very introspective place for a few months, and spending so much time inward has made it harder to focus outward.Not Goodbye. Until.https://dzello.com/blog/2015/05/15/not-goodbye.-until./
Fri, 15 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/05/15/not-goodbye.-until./Last week marked the end of my journey with Keen IO. What an incredible two and a half years it's been! I want to thank the founders, employees, investors, and community for the opportunity to be a part of something very special.Ego Threat Level — Low or High?https://dzello.com/blog/2015/04/18/ego-threat-level-low-or-high/
Sat, 18 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/04/18/ego-threat-level-low-or-high/&quot;The essence of self-esteem is comparison.&quot; — Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson
Comparison. Our brain does it all day long, usually without us knowing. We compare ourselves to friends, co-workers, spouses, the people ahead of us in line, the driver in the carpool lane, celebrities, and all the other humans we know about.10 rules for writing fiction from The Guardianhttps://dzello.com/blog/2015/01/01/10-rules-for-writing-fiction-from-the-guardian/
Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2015/01/01/10-rules-for-writing-fiction-from-the-guardian/In 2010 The Guardian asked a few well-known authors to surrender a shortlist of their personal do’s and don’ts. The result was a two part series full of brilliant insight and amusing contradiction.The open source contribution streak ends on day 66https://dzello.com/blog/2014/10/30/the-open-source-contribution-streak-ends-on-day-66/
Thu, 30 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2014/10/30/the-open-source-contribution-streak-ends-on-day-66/Streak and Burning Man are in the title but I assure you that this post is G-rated and family-friendly. As of August 23rd I had contributed to open source for 66 days in a row:OSS Streak Update, Day 13https://dzello.com/blog/2014/07/01/oss-streak-update-day-13/
Tue, 01 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2014/07/01/oss-streak-update-day-13/Today is the 13th day of my 365-day Github contribution streak.
The first commit I made yesterday turned into something bigger, a new command line interface library for Keen. I wrote a post about it over on the Keen blog.Open Source 365 - contribute code every day for a yearhttps://dzello.com/blog/2014/06/23/open-source-365-contribute-code-every-day-for-a-year/
Mon, 23 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2014/06/23/open-source-365-contribute-code-every-day-for-a-year/Five days ago I resolved to start and maintain a year-long open source contribution streak. After testing the waters for a few days I'm ready to announce my goal publicly.Listen to your log files with audhttps://dzello.com/blog/2014/01/10/listen-to-your-log-files-with-aud/
Fri, 10 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2014/01/10/listen-to-your-log-files-with-aud/Today I am open sourcing a tool called aud. It's a concept I developed while working on distributed systems at Keen IO. aud helps me process log files aurally, without having to stare at tiny, fast-scrolling text all day.weeve - HTML5 Twitter uber-streaming powered by Firebase, Keen IO, and Singlyhttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/12/24/weeve-html5-twitter-uber-streaming-powered-by-firebase-keen-io-and-singly/
Mon, 24 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/12/24/weeve-html5-twitter-uber-streaming-powered-by-firebase-keen-io-and-singly/Update: weeve has been retired, but the Keen and Firebase APIs allow you to build more apps just like it :) Ever wish you could trade Twitter timelines with someone for a day?Stream Audio To Your Home Theater Without Using Airplayhttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/11/23/stream-audio-to-your-home-theater-without-using-airplay/
Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/11/23/stream-audio-to-your-home-theater-without-using-airplay/I wrote a post earlier this week about live streaming system audio from Mac OSX.
My home theater is powered by a Denon AVR-1912. One reason I chose this receiver is that supports Airplay directly.Live-stream system audio from OSX Mountain Lion with Icecast2 and Darkicehttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/11/21/live-stream-system-audio-from-osx-mountain-lion-with-icecast2-and-darkice/
Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/11/21/live-stream-system-audio-from-osx-mountain-lion-with-icecast2-and-darkice/To share both music and announcements, party.io uses Play from Github. Play is an 'employee-powered iTunes-based client-driven distributed music server for your office'. Our company DJ (a big-hearted, chrome-plated hubot) manages Play and occasionally accepts submissions from the team.Perception of Creativity in Developmenthttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/10/16/perception-of-creativity-in-development/
Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/10/16/perception-of-creativity-in-development/Previously I talked about the concept of flow.
In this post I'll talk about why, specifically for software developers, flow conditions remain painfully absent from today's working environments. (1)Here's To Flowhttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/09/27/heres-to-flow/
Thu, 27 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/09/27/heres-to-flow/Do you know about Csíkszentmihályi's concept of flow?
Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.Mongoid Alize 0.3.1 - unified API, polymorphic support, and increased flexibilityhttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/07/28/mongoid-alize-0.3.1-unified-api-polymorphic-support-and-increased-flexibility/
Sat, 28 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/07/28/mongoid-alize-0.3.1-unified-api-polymorphic-support-and-increased-flexibility/Today I released 0.3.1 of Mongoid::Alizé.
This is a breaking API update. I repeat, this is a breaking API update. Learn about the update and how to upgrade on the github README.I'm joining party.iohttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/06/24/im-joining-party.io/
Sun, 24 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/06/24/im-joining-party.io/My search for what's next has ended. I'm joining forces with the super-talented ninakix at party.io!
Nina is actually from the Internet. Have you read Nina's TechCrunch post about the social network paradox?Mongoid Alize 0.2.0 - denormalize methods, redefine callbacks, improved speed, and more!https://dzello.com/blog/2012/06/19/mongoid-alize-0.2.0-denormalize-methods-redefine-callbacks-improved-speed-and-more/
Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/06/19/mongoid-alize-0.2.0-denormalize-methods-redefine-callbacks-improved-speed-and-more/Today I published 0.2.0 of Mongoid::Alizé. This version comes with a host of new features, performance improvements, and more documentation.
Check out the changelog on Github and upgrade today.
Thanks to everyone who has given feedback or opened an issue so far.Releasing Mongoid Alize - Comprehensive field denormalization for Mongoid that stays in synchttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/05/03/releasing-mongoid-alize-comprehensive-field-denormalization-for-mongoid-that-stays-in-sync/
Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/05/03/releasing-mongoid-alize-comprehensive-field-denormalization-for-mongoid-that-stays-in-sync/Warning: The API has evolved since the initial release - make sure to check out this post before diving in!
Today I'm releasing v0.1 of Mongoid Alizé. From MongoSF nonetheless!headless_hamlc - A working example of jasmine-headless-webkit with haml_coffee_assetshttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/04/17/headless_hamlc-a-working-example-of-jasmine-headless-webkit-with-haml_coffee_assets/
Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/04/17/headless_hamlc-a-working-example-of-jasmine-headless-webkit-with-haml_coffee_assets/I've written before about using haml_coffee_assets to add Haml Coffee templates into your Rails asset pipeline. And how to test these templates using jasmine-headless-webkit.
I've watched and/or helped developers try to get these tools working together in their apps but it's been a little bumpy.Update to previous Mongoid id serialization fixhttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/04/14/update-to-previous-mongoid-id-serialization-fix/
Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/04/14/update-to-previous-mongoid-id-serialization-fix/Previously I had blogged about one way to get an id attribute included in the serialization of Mongoid documents.
The original solution involved a patch to the as_json method from ActiveModel::Serialization applied to Mongoid::Document.Auto-troll your app: a Ruby client for TrollemIpsumhttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/04/06/auto-troll-your-app-a-ruby-client-for-trollemipsum/
Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/04/06/auto-troll-your-app-a-ruby-client-for-trollemipsum/I found TrollemIpsum yesterday. Now I'm using it to generate my fixture data and generally auto-troll the applications.
I'm releasing a simple Ruby API client for TrollemIpsum so you can too.Clickable Growl Notifications for Pivotal Trackerhttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/03/24/clickable-growl-notifications-for-pivotal-tracker/
Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/03/24/clickable-growl-notifications-for-pivotal-tracker/When your team is greasing through the Pivotal Tracker backlog - adding/updating/finishing multiple stories a minute leading up to that big release - you get a sense for the value that Tracker's real-time web interface offers.Spin up your Heroku dyno automatically after deployhttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/03/11/spin-up-your-heroku-dyno-automatically-after-deploy/
Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/03/11/spin-up-your-heroku-dyno-automatically-after-deploy/See an update to this post with a more efficient solution here.
Here's my former Heroku manual acceptance testing workflow:
Finish some stories and commit them. git push heroku master Do other stuff while I wait for the deploy to finish.Remove Finder from the Application Switcher in Mac OSXhttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/02/12/remove-finder-from-the-application-switcher-in-mac-osx/
Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/02/12/remove-finder-from-the-application-switcher-in-mac-osx/When I'm doing web development, I typically only have 2 Mac Applications running - iTerm2 and a Web Browser.
My workflow calls for jumping between them frequently. Thankfully, the Command+Tab OSX shortcut makes switching applications mouse-free and efficient.Updated: Spin up your Heroku dyno automatically after deployhttps://dzello.com/blog/2012/01/01/updated-spin-up-your-heroku-dyno-automatically-after-deploy/
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2012/01/01/updated-spin-up-your-heroku-dyno-automatically-after-deploy/In March I had written about using a Heroku deploy hook to ensure your application's dyno(s) spin up immediately after a deploy. It's a simple hack, but it can save you a few seconds each time you hit a newly-deployed build.Get hamlc syntax highlighting in vimhttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/12/26/get-hamlc-syntax-highlighting-in-vim/
Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/12/26/get-hamlc-syntax-highlighting-in-vim/If you've used haml-coffee templates, you might be amazed by much they look like Ruby Haml templates.
After all, Haml is Haml, and Ruby and Coffescript share some syntax - notably the use of @ to refer to instance variables.Tame the Mongoid _id field in your Rails and Backbone JS Apphttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/12/24/tame-the-mongoid-_id-field-in-your-rails-and-backbone-js-app/
Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/12/24/tame-the-mongoid-_id-field-in-your-rails-and-backbone-js-app/The Identity Crisis - _id vs id Sooner or later as you develop your Rails + Mongoid + Backbone app you'll run into a conflict between the identity attribute Mongoid prefers - _id - and the identity attribute Backbone JS prefers - id.Using haml_coffee_assets with jasmine-headless-webkithttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/12/24/using-haml_coffee_assets-with-jasmine-headless-webkit/
Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/12/24/using-haml_coffee_assets-with-jasmine-headless-webkit/haml_coffee_assets allows you to use haml-coffee templates in the Rails asset pipeline.
jasmine-headless-webkit runs your Jasmine specs comically fast - seriously. It supports Coffeescript and works great with Guard. It provides a nice CLI with debugging output while still giving you browser access at /specs.Polyfills: Shims and Shivshttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/10/27/polyfills-shims-and-shivs/
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/10/27/polyfills-shims-and-shivs/Today I gave a presentation at Disney&rsquo;s HTML 5 Summit. It&rsquo;s about polyfills &ndash; generally, specifically, philosophically, etc.
Check it out here:
Polyfills: Shims and Shivs
What do you think? Any feedback?Remembering Steve Jobs and My Apple IIehttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/10/07/remembering-steve-jobs-and-my-apple-iie/
Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/10/07/remembering-steve-jobs-and-my-apple-iie/tl;dr: R.I.P. Steve Jobs. You rocked the computer party.
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.Preview your Github README.md locallyhttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/09/27/preview-your-github-readme.md-locally/
Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/09/27/preview-your-github-readme.md-locally/A good README.md is an essential tool to educate developers about your Github-hosted project.
Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is better than nothing.What is 'this'? - Revealing JavaScript's 'this' in different contextshttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/08/24/what-is-this-revealing-javascripts-this-in-different-contexts/
Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/08/24/what-is-this-revealing-javascripts-this-in-different-contexts/Understanding the value of &lsquo;this&rsquo; in JavaScript as it appears in different contexts is a requisite to becoming an intermediate or advanced JavaScript programmer.
Closures, instantiations, &lsquo;apply&rsquo;, and &lsquo;with&rsquo; all can change what &lsquo;this&rsquo; is.Use httparty with rspec and capybarahttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/08/23/use-httparty-with-rspec-and-capybara/
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/08/23/use-httparty-with-rspec-and-capybara/httparty can be a useful supplement to Capybara drivers for use in a Capybara test suite. Take the example of an rspec-based load test.
For this purpose Selenium&rsquo;s WebDriver is too slow, rack-test doesn&rsquo;t work remotely, and capybara-mechanize doesn&rsquo;t work well with pages that rely on AJAX or JavaScript to create elements (although otherwise it&rsquo;s quite well suited to this purpose).Monkeybrains Internet in Dogpatchhttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/08/18/monkeybrains-internet-in-dogpatch/
Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/08/18/monkeybrains-internet-in-dogpatch/When I moved into my current apartment in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood, I invested considerable&nbsp;time and effort into getting Internet service from someone other than the incumbents - Comcast and AT&amp;T.Use an HTTP Proxy with Capybara Mechanizehttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/08/12/use-an-http-proxy-with-capybara-mechanize/
Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/08/12/use-an-http-proxy-with-capybara-mechanize/Hooray for your awesomely fast and invisible capybara-mechanize HTTP-based acceptance tests! Aren&rsquo;t they great? Well &ndash; until they break and you need to know just what in the Helper is going on back there.Using New Relic to monitor a Padrino Applicationhttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/07/15/using-new-relic-to-monitor-a-padrino-application/
Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/07/15/using-new-relic-to-monitor-a-padrino-application/Getting New Relic hooked into your Padrino application isn&rsquo;t too hard &ndash; there are a just a few gotchas.
(Before starting, make sure you have a valid config/new_relic.yml configuration file in place.Easiest Possible RSpec Performance Test w/ Scenarioshttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/07/13/easiest-possible-rspec-performance-test-w/-scenarios/
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/07/13/easiest-possible-rspec-performance-test-w/-scenarios/Here&rsquo;s a gist I wrote today with some code you might find helpful if you&rsquo;ve ever wanted to run scenario-based performance tests using your existing RSpec acceptance (or unit) test suite.Jumping between JavaScript and Ruby Closureshttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/07/13/jumping-between-javascript-and-ruby-closures/
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/07/13/jumping-between-javascript-and-ruby-closures/These days I find myself constantly jumping between Ruby and Javascript when creating web applications. Some days I feel like Hiro Protagonist, with these languages as my twin katanas.
Except&hellip; that they&rsquo;re obviously not twins.Generate a random, friendly confirmation code in pure Rubyhttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/06/26/generate-a-random-friendly-confirmation-code-in-pure-ruby/
Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/06/26/generate-a-random-friendly-confirmation-code-in-pure-ruby/Here&rsquo;s a really handy trick for generating a pseudo-random alphanumeric code in pure Ruby &ndash; no gems or dependencies needed.
&gt;&gt; rand(36**6).to_s(36) =&gt; &quot;a7yr8r&quot; Note that 36**6 = 2,176,782,336 = or about 2 Billion combinations.Use SignedCookieJar in Rails to set signed cookieshttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/06/26/use-signedcookiejar-in-rails-to-set-signed-cookies/
Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/06/26/use-signedcookiejar-in-rails-to-set-signed-cookies/My Rails 3 application&rsquo;s use case &ndash; set a tamper-proof cookie other than the default session cookie (which your Rails app is probably already signing.) Maybe your application does this to track analytics, persistent information for logged out users, etc.Nginx, gzip, and the Accept-Encoding headerhttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/06/24/nginx-gzip-and-the-accept-encoding-header/
Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/06/24/nginx-gzip-and-the-accept-encoding-header/To get gzip configured for nginx, first make sure the flag is set when you compile, or that the binary you&rsquo;ve installed was compiled with it on (seems to be the default).Serve mobile-specific templates easily with Padrino & Sinatrahttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/06/22/serve-mobile-specific-templates-easily-with-padrino-sinatra/
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/06/22/serve-mobile-specific-templates-easily-with-padrino-sinatra/Padrino&nbsp;provides support to&nbsp;render templates dynamically (e.g. foo.js vs. foo.haml) based on request content type formats and also locales (e.g. en, fr, es).
If you're not making use of the locales, you can use that mechanism for other purposes with just a simple override.How Pivotal Tracker Meets Our Needshttps://dzello.com/blog/2011/05/15/how-pivotal-tracker-meets-our-needs/
Sun, 15 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/blog/2011/05/15/how-pivotal-tracker-meets-our-needs/For over a year now I've used&nbsp;Pivotal Tracker&nbsp;on projects to answer the question - "what should I do next?" The tool has worked well for me, and recently I was asked to explain by someone a bit more.Searchhttps://dzello.com/search/
Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000josh@dzello.com (Josh Dzielak)https://dzello.com/search/